Official figures show almost 180,000 pupils failed to reach the expected level in a new reading test for all six-year-olds this summer.

Data from the Department for Education also revealed that boys were already lagging far behind girls after 12 months of compulsory education.

Poor white boys – those eligible for free school meals – were actually the worst-performing ethnic group, being outscored by similar pupils from Black, Asian and Chinese backgrounds.

It was only the second year that all pupils in English state schools had been required to sit the test using synthetic phonics – a method of decoding words by breaking them down into constituent parts.

Children who fail to reach the expected level are being earmarked for special catch-up classes.

“The phonics check helps teachers identify those pupils who need extra help in learning to read.

"Many thousands of children will now receive the extra support they need to catch up with their peers and develop a love of reading.”

Just over 600,000 children in England took the phonics check this year.

It involves decoding 40 words, including made up terms such as "voo", "spron" and "terg", to ensure children can properly apply phonics.

The latest results show that 69 per cent of six-year-olds achieved at least 32 out of 40 – the standard expected for the age group. This is up 11 percentage points on last year.

Figures also showed:

• Around one-in-seven pupils – 86,000 – were unable to read at least half of the words in this year’s test, while 30,000 pupils scored 25 per cent or less;

• Girls performed much better than boys, with 73 per cent passing the test, compared with just 65 per cent of boys;

• Only 48 per cent of poor white British boys achieved the pass mark – the lowest performing group after Gypsy and Roma pupils – with poor boys from black Caribbean, black African, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi families all performing better.

The Government also published figures relating to standards achieved by children at the age of seven – the end of Key Stage 1.

It emerged that 89 per cent of pupils were performing well in reading, 85 per cent in writing, 89 per cent in speaking and listening, 91 per cent in maths and 90 per cent in science.

Reading and writing scores were up by two percentage points, while other disciplines increased by one percentage point.

The disclosure is made in teachers’ assessments of pupils’ ability in the classroom at the end of the second full year of compulsory education.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “This test really is quite pernicious. To be telling five and six-year-olds that they have failed is quite simply wrong.

“Children develop at different levels. The slow reader at five can easily be the good reader by the age of 11. We cannot continue with this obsession of testing and categorising as failures our very young children.

“Of course it is important that young children are learning and absorbing new ideas and skills and of course reading is vitally important. Turning reading, however, into a stressful hurdle to be passed as soon as children step through the school doors is a dreadful mistake."

Russell Hobby, general secretary of National Association of Head Teachers, said: “Despite the government's belief, few children are identified as needing extra help as a result of this test, as they have already been identified the year before in reception. The test just takes time out from helping them.

“Given that primary schools have been intensive users of phonics for many years the rise in pass marks this year may well be due to additional training of children to cope with the made-up nonsense syllables used in the test.

"This just shows that performance in crude tests is not always a reflection of real skills abilities. Ironically, some of our most able readers do least well in the phonics test."